Gear Review: The Shield RMSc Micro Red Dot Sight

The micro-compact pistol market has gained lots and lots of steam in recent years. Small guns with higher capacity go a long way, and part of that micro-compact appeal is the modern capabilities they offer. That includes the ability to mount an optic, and without the Shield RMSc red dot sight, the micro-optic market might have stalled out. They took mini red dots and made them micro-sized.

These days companies like Holosun, SIG SAUER, Riton, Crimson Trace and more owe the original Shield RMSc a little credit. Tons of companies use this footprint and its ofund on SIG and Glock slides. With that said, does the OG micro red dot still hold up?

That’s what I aimed to find out when I got my hands on one of the newer RMSc optics. What’s new is the presence of a glass lens over the former polymer lens. Shield builds all of its sights in the United Kingdom and it’s my first experience with optics from across the pond.

A Little Fella With Big Potential

Shooters can choose from an RMSc with a 4 MOA or 8 MOA reticle. I went with the 4 MOA version and, as mentioned, the glass lens. The polymer lens is still available and a little less expensive. The glass lens delivers a clear picture with a sharp dot and no noticeable tint. It’s crystal clear and easily one of the clearest pistol red dots I’ve ever handled.

Shield describes the lens as having a hard coating, anti-reflective properties and no colored coating applied.

The RMSc is super tiny and very lightweight. It’s also probably one of the most stripped-down designs I’ve ever seen. The battery loads in the bottom, and the optic lacks any kind of buttons at all for activation and adjustment. There are the adjustment knobs, and that’s it.

Brightness adjustment is automatic only. The lowest automatic adjustment can be seen under night vision optics, and the brightest setting supposedly can be seen against the sky in bright daylight. In my experience, this works well. I took it out at high noon in Florida to see how bright it gets. I had no trouble seeing the bright reticle of the RMSc, even while wearing sunglasses.

The dot dims and increases in intensity quickly and intuitively as the light changes. The adjustment was so fast that I was amazed going from room to room and seeing how the reticle changed brightness.

Bright Lights

One problem with auto-adjusting dots is using a white light with one. Most of the time, the dot doesn’t adjust to the light in front of it, only the light that’s over it. A white light will often wash them out.

To see if that’s an issue with the RMSc, I went into a dark room with a powerful 1,000 lumen light for ASP and hit the button.

I set the light in front of the gun and could see the RMSc’s dot without issue. I moved the light beside the optic and behind the optic and still had no washout issues. Pretty impressive.

It should also be stated you can’t turn the RMSc off. The red dot is always on, but if you slip the included rubber cover over the optic when not in use, it automatically adjusts to the lowest battery sipping level. With battery life rated at between two to three years, that’s not a problem. Change out out on your birthday or January 1 every day and your RMSc will always be working.

The RMSc On the Gun

I tossed the RMSc on my new SIG P322. With ammo prices being how they are, I’ve been shooting the P322 a ton. Installation is simple, and once the two screws are torqued down, you’re good to go.

At the back of the optic sits a small notch that acts as a rear sight. The RMSc sits low enough to co-witness with standard height sights.

That rear notch is quite handy and a very nice feature for use with a gun like the P322, where the rear sight is removed to install the optic. Once mounted, I started zeroing and shooting. The optic comes with the Allen key needed to make the adjustments. You insert the Allen key into this wheel-like device that gives you the adjustment information.

Each click is a ¼ MOA at twenty yards. That measurement is odd for an optic, but it makes sense on a handgun. How far are you going to zero your handgun optic? I zero at ten yards, which will carry me quite far with a handgun.

The adjustments are tactile. You can feel each click, but can’t hear it and they’re dead on. I shot a round, measured to the bull’s eye, and then made the adjustments, and well, you can see the photos for yourself.

Blasting Away

I’m not the type who thinks you have to have a red dot on your handgun, but if you asked me a yes or no question, it’d always be yes. With the RMSc mounted to my P322, I hit the range starting at ten yards and moving rearward. At 25 yards, I had no issues ringing a four-inch gong over and over and over.

The 4 MOA dot remains clear and precise. It’s a well-designed optic, and the clear and crisp dot is an indicator of a high-quality optic.

Beyond twenty-five yards, hitting the two-inch gong was a little harder, but certainly not impossible. The 8-inch gong went ding, ding with ease even at 50 yards in an unsupported, standing position. My 6-inch gong was easy to hit at this range, and 75% of those rounds hit the target at 50 yards.

That’s the real joy of a dot on a handgun. The second joy is speed, and the 4 MOA dot certainly makes you want to go fast. So I went did.

Combine a dot with a full-sized .22LR pistol, and we get a gun that’s ripe for personal bests on drills. I shot an all-black 10-10-10 drill in six seconds, a clean iHack, and an El Presidente that would make Jeff Cooper proud.

Sure, the recoil of a .22LR certainly makes things easier, but shooting with the dot is much faster than aligning sights and easier to track. The RMSc makes all of it fast, accurate and easy.

Specifications

Length: 1.7 inches
Height: .9 inches
Width: .9 inches
Weight: .57 ounces
MSRP: $429.99 (about $370 retail)

Clarity * * * * *
This is the clearest micro pistol optic, and hell, the clearest pistol optic I’ve ever used. There is no tint, the dot is very precise, and it’s incredibly well clear. Color me impressed.

Features * * * *
The auto-adjusting brightness level actually works. Not just for target shooting, but for a number of diverse situations. The rear notch and low-slung design make it easy to co-witness naturally with your stock iron sights. Some folks might be turned off by the lack of manual adjustment…but I don’t mind it.

Value * * * *
Admittedly the glass lens Shield RMSc isn’t inexpensive, with a street price hovering around $370. Yet this is a very high-quality product, and the new glass lenses have taken it to the next level.

Overall * * * *
I’ve used both the SIG RomeoZero and Holosun 507K and enjoyed both, but the Shield RMSc is the first micro red dot to truly impress me. Maybe the Brits really can build a nice optic.